First it was starting guard Mike Matulis, then it was back up corner Jamari Smith. In the last few days South Carolina has lost two players to significant injuries that could be season ending. How many more will they lose before Texas A&M comes to town?

The last three or four seasons have been incredibly successful, in part because the Gamecocks have had minimal injuries to key players. Sure Clowney had some injury issues and Shaw was injured a few times, but it has been rare that key personnel have been taken out for the season.

Part of the reason there haven’t been that many injuries is that the coaching staff, the head ball coach in particular, focus on avoiding injuries. Last week at the Columbia Touchdown Club Coach Spurrier said “I talk about that every day, let’s make sure nobody get’s hurt.” The other part of avoiding injuries is luck. Sometimes guys fall awkwardly; sometimes cleats stick; sometimes injuries happen.

And injuries are expected to happen. All you can do is take some precautions and hope this isn’t the year you have terrible luck. Georgia has had years with rashes of injuries, and look at Florida last season. Sometimes it’s just your year.

There’s never a good time for it to happen, and you hope it doesn’t happen to the truly irreplaceable players, but that’s all you can do. Hopefully this isn’t the year Carolina has to persevere through many injuries.